Part of Your World

"Hey kids, come and look at this, Mummy's in a magazine!"



"Meh"

That's my husband and he's not wrong.  I am in the wonderfully glossy November issue of Berkshire Life in massive technicolour.  My toothiest grin leaping out of a three page spread charting my journey from corporate life to writer and the publication of Reasons to be Cheerful, Part One.  I would be lying if I said it wasn't exciting.  For me. 

As for the children, they trotted into the kitchen, took one look at the picture of my great big head and made a noise that I think is the primary school version of 'meh'.  They then went back to watching Bottom Knocker Street.

Contrast this to when I went in to school to read some stories to my son's class.  My daughter spotted me from down the corridor and made a sprint that Usain Bolt would have been proud of, followed by an impressively forceful leap and a collision of our bodies that resulted with her hanging on to me like a Koala bear.  "Mummy!!!!  It's my mummy!" she shouted in triumph at the other pupils loitering in the cloakrooms.  She was beaming and proud, I was slightly dazed and wondering whether a rugby career might be in the offing for her.

Having my first feature in print is thrilling, but my daughter's reaction to me being in her school made me feel like a superstar.  Becoming a writer has given me more time to be with the children, but if I'm really honest my brain is elsewhere, and they know it.  So I'm resolving to make more of an effort to be part of their world - I'm booked in to read to my daughter's class tomorrow :)


Soundtrack: Part of Your World - Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (okay, okay, yes it's from The Little Mermaid!)